A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for biography is among the first to offer praise for this forthcoming book! These women authors have credentials as historians, journalists, and social commentators. Hopefully, these are just the first of many quotes of praise to come for Crossing Swords: Mary Baker Eddy vs. Victoria Claflin Woodhull and the Battle for the Soul of Marriage by Cindy Safronoff (This One Thing, July 4, 2015). Click the links to learn more about these authors:
“Crossing Swords tells the intertwined tales of Victoria Woodhull and Mary Baker Eddy – two fearless American iconoclasts whose work on sex, love, and women’s rights changed the course of American culture. Cindy Peyser Safronoff does a great job of bringing these fascinating women back to life in all of their brilliance and eccentricity for a new generation of readers.” –DEBBY APPLEGATE, Pulitzer Prize winner for The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
“Crossing Swords is a fascinating look at two Victorian woman leaders in the female cultural war of their day. Mary Baker Eddy, the famed founder of Christian Science, battled Free Love while flamboyant Victoria Woodhull championed it. Safronoff deserves our praise for a well-crafted biography about two riveting opposites, who both fought fiercely for their avante garde rights, no matter how far apart, and never gave up.” –MYRA MACPHERSON, author of The Scarlet Sisters: Sex, Suffrage, and Scandal in the Gilded Age
“A remarkably even-handed exploration of the little-known debates — and occasional ironic convergences — between two charismatic 19th century women whose support for women’s rights was attached to very different views about marriage and sexuality.” –STEPHANIE COONTZ, author of Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage
“Crossing Swords is a terrific book—a fine blend of excellent writing and superior research. Safronoff’s twined intellectual biographies of Mary Baker Eddy and Victoria Claflin Woodhull brings two very different women together, between the covers of one book. So very different and yet so alike, they cross swords in this masterful account.” –DR. LORRAINE MCCONAGHY, Public Historian, Seattle
“Crossing Swords is a fascinating analysis of a very modern–day theme: marriage vs. “free love” and the role of women in society. Ms. Safronoff has unearthed a gem of a story that still resonates today!” –SUZANNE VENKER, author of The Two-Income Trap: Why Parents are Choosing to Stay Home